We need to invest our lives into leaving a spiritual legacy for our children and our spiritual children just like Jonathan and Sarah Edwards did in the early 1700s in colonial America.

Jonathan Edwards felt God's call to become a minister. He and his young bride became the pastors of a small congregation. During the many years that followed, he wrote numerous sermons, said many prayers, and wrote some books. He was influential in beginning the Great Awakening and seeing a nation be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Together they produced eleven children who grew into adulthood. Remember Sarah was a partner in her husband's ministry, and he sought her advice regarding sermons and church matters. They spent time talking about these things together as a couple, and, when their children were old enough, the parents included them in the discussions. The effects of the Edwards's lives have been far-reaching, but the most measurable results of their faithfulness to God's call is found through their descendants. These descendants are their spiritual legacy!

Elizabeth Dodds records a study done by A. E. Winship in 1900 in which he lists a few of the accomplishments of the 1,400 Edwards descendants he was able to find:

• 100 lawyers and a dean of a law school

• 80 holders of public office

• 66 physicians and a dean of a medical school

• 65 professors of colleges and universities

• 30 judges

• 13 college presidents

• 3 mayors of large cities

• 3 governors of states

• 3 United States senators

• 1 controller of the United States Treasury

• 1 Vice President of the United States

These were just their biological descendants can you imagine what their spiritual children did for the Kingdom of Heaven? When we talk legacy – a spiritual legacy this is what we mean!

Questions to ponder this morning: “What kind of legacy will you leave? Will it be lasting? Will it be imperishable and eternal? Or will you leave behind only physical things like buildings, money, and other possessions?”

Our new series is called “Legacy of the Pew.”

Brief History of the Pew:

The original orthodox church had no pews people would stand or kneel but the pew idea took shape during the Protestant Reformation with the rise of preaching to train the people in God’s Word. The reformation ushered in extensive teaching sermons to train the masses in the knowledge of the Bible. So people sat for longer periods of time listening to the sermons. When pews first took off the church usually did not buy them people did – yes – they bought their own pew to sit in and then surrounded it with a pew box which in those days actually had their names on them. They really did claim them as their own and some families rented them out to those who could not afford their own pews – really I am not making this up! This was common until about the 19th century. Then the church got in the act of charging for the pew. But it became too political and not so biblical and so the church introduced the common pew that anyone could sit on at church service – but this was paid for by the church. So the pew has evolved from wood benches to padded pews to what is now padded comfortable chairs.